"It was crunch time before one of the East Bay's most iconic landmarks, the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, was set to open its doors once more, a century after its construction and two decades after the venue was shuttered. Within the building's awe-inspiring 19th-century French-style architecture, in a makeshift backroom office space, a small group of weary-eyed workers hunched over laptops on shared desks, preparing for the public presentation of its new look."
"Glazed terra cotta relief sculptures by Alexander Stirling Calder in a niche of the the newly-reopened Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. The building has been closed for 20 years and the grand opening is on Saturday. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) It had cost East Bay real-estate firm Orton Development about $100 million to bring the historic site back to life."
Oakland's Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts reopened to the public a century after construction and two decades after closure. Workers prepared final presentations amid the building's 19th-century French-style architecture. Photographs show the North Stage Ballroom, downstairs and upstairs hallways, and glazed terra cotta relief sculptures by Alexander Stirling Calder. Terri Trotter, the center's CEO, led tours of the newly-renovated spaces. The renovation and restoration cost about $100 million and was undertaken by East Bay real-estate firm Orton Development. The grand opening was scheduled for Saturday, ending a 20-year shutdown.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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